Road Trippin'

This past weekend we had the opportunity to take our first solo-road trip, Mr. Quinn and I.  Quinn and I packed up the car and drove to St. Louis for the weekend to visit with my mom and her friend Joy.  I was really curious to see how Quinn would do in the car without anyone to entertain him for 5 hours, but he did GREAT!  A few books, a cell phone, plenty of treats, and 2 McDonalds stops later, we were in St. Louis.

I LOVE Priceline and had used it to bid on a 4 star room in downtown St. Louis.  For more than 50% lower than the weekend's cheapest rate, we ended up getting rooms at The Marriott Union Station.  This hotel was AMAZING!  A historical monument in St. Louis, the Marriott is built literally inside the old train station.  It was absolutely stunning.  See for yourself:

Marriott Union Station at Night

The Hotel Lobby

Even better was that the part of the building that was not a hotel was a large mall.  There really were never that many people around so Quinn had a blast just running (yes he's running now) all over the place.  He learned about escalators and how fun they can be going up and down them for 20+ minutes at a time, he learned that "Slippery When Wet" signs can be pushed all over the place and make a clapping sound when they collapse, and he learned that you cannot get into every fountain you see everywhere you go.

No trip to St. Louis would be complete without a trip to Trader Joe's so Saturday morning, since it was terribly rainy, Mom, Quinn, and I headed out shopping.  I was like a kid in a candy store buying Two Buck Chuck, meringues, fun sauces and marinades, dried fruits, and so much more.  I have to say that my one complaint about Northwest Arkansas is that we don't have amazing grocery stores.  I used to LOVE grocery shopping.  In fact, my favorite store was the grocery store, but since we've moved here and Walmart is one of my only options, grocery shopping has lost its thrill.  Take me to a Trader Joe's though and I am quickly reminded of how things once were.

After our shopping trip, we picked up Joy and her friends that she was visiting with and headed out to the St. Louis Zoo.  The St. Louis Zoo might be one of the most underrated zoos in the country.  I was so totally impressed by it.  First of all, it is FREE!  Yes...you heard it right...FREE!  Of course you have to pay the $12 to park, but other than that, FREE!!  Secondly, it is so well laid out with not super far walks from each exibit and thirdly, the animals had beautiful habitats.  Quinn was so excited to get to the zoo that here's what I found as soon as we arrived there:

Mr. Quinn...so sleepy

Luckily, it only took about 20 minutes and a few monkeys to wake this little man up.  He had the BEST time watching the monkeys and playing at the Children's Zoo.  Go figure that he wanted to spend the majority of his time looking at the fish - the same fish tank, mind you, as the local Chinese restaurant has.  That is of course to say until he found the splash park and the petting zoo!  He then also really enjoyed chasing the chickens and playing with the goats! 

Just a few more pics from our wonderful weekend Road Trip.  ENJOY!

Gigi, Quinn, Mommy, and Joy

Quinn Riding The Frog at The St. Louis Zoo

Petting Goats with Mommy

Ready to do it BY MYSELF

Time to Go Home!